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Jonathan Rea up to speed on Day 1

Portimao (Portugal), Friday 7 June 2013 – Close competition was the key factor in today’s Qualifying 1 for the eni FIM Superbike World Championship. Under dry track conditions and good temperatures throughout all 45 minutes available the top-10 riders were – in the end – all within a second of each other. Ulsterman Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) stormed to the top in the final stages to secure 1st place for just 52 thousands of a second over Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) and 97 on the “King of Donington” Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team).

Factory Aprilia rider Sylvain Guintoli rode to a final 4th place followed by Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Aprilia) and works BMW duo of Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) showed some good signs of recovery – after the unfortunate but almost inevitable withdrawal from Race 2 in the previous round – to end up 8th ahead of Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki), Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare).

French WSBK rookie Jules Cluzel (12th) lost control of his FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R1000 for a seemingly innocent crash at Turn 3 with few minutes left on the clock. It was again a tough ride for 13th place Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike), still dealing with the difficult left leg injury that is heavily affecting his performance.
No time set for Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma Aprilia), following the encouraging 2nd place in FP1, as the rider from Rome was stopped twice by technical problems on his RSV4

After leading the first World Supersport free practice session, Sam Lowes (Yakhnich Motorsport Yamaha) found himself on top again by setting the best lap-time in Q1. The current Championship leader was in 1st place already as the session was drawing to an end, but he decided to get back on track anyway to further improve his performance to a final 1’45.724, 0.522 seconds quicker than main rival for the World Supersport title Kenan Sofuoglu (Mahi Racing Team India Kawasaki).

Following the encouraging performance last time out at Donington, Irishman Jack Kennedy (Rivamoto Honda) proved to be again on the right pace in qualifying as he finished third ahead of an impressive David Salom (Intermoto Ponyexpres Kawasaki), considering his 4-round absence due to a complicated hand injury.

French WSS veteran Fabien Foret (Mahi Racing Team India Kawasaki) ended up with a competitive 5th – despite a 1.225 seconds gap from the top – followed by Luca Scassa (Intermoto Ponyexpres Kawasaki), Sheridan Morais (PTR Honda) and the still injured – and unfortunate victim of a technical problem – Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Supersport).

Defending STK1000 Champion Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) has made the most out of Qualifying 1 to get a provisional pole position, waiting for tomorrow afternoon’s second session. The Frenchman was the only rider able to lap within the 1’45 seconds and was followed by race winner at Monza Lorenzo Savadori (Team Pedercini Kawasaki).

The former Italian and European 125 cc Champion managed to narrow the gap with the front – from 1.277 seconds in FP1 to a much smaller 0.699 – to finish ahead of Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Kawasaki) and fellow-Italian Eddi La Marra (Barni Racing Ducati).

La Marra’s team mate and current leader in the standings Niccolò Canepa had a steady start of the Portuguese Round, resulting in a 7th place at the flag behind Leandro Mercado (Team Pedercini Kawasaki) and Matthieu Lussiana (Team Aspi Kawasaki). A last-lap crash for Ondrej Jezek (SK Energy – Fany Gastro Ducati) at Turn 3 deprived the Czech rider of a chance to improve his final 10th place.

The sun popped out from behind the clouds before the start of Qualifying 1 meaning the STK600 riders could perform at their very best at the spectacular Autodromo do Algarve. Australia’s Adrian Nestorovic (MTM-MVR Racing Team Yamaha) – who scored his maiden podium finish in the series last year at Portimao – and Franco Morbidelli (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki) were able to get ahead of early leader Gauthier Duwelz to finish 1st and 2nd respectively within 0.057 seconds of each other.

Duwelz, current Championship leader onboard his MTM-MVR Racing YZF-R6, was followed closely by Bastien Chesaux (EAB Ten Kate Junior Honda), the young Swiss rider completing a very tight top-4. Nito Racing Kawasaki’s Tony Covena return to the series after his World Supersport debut resulted in a 5th place in the very first qualifying session for the Portuguese round to precede Christian Gamarino (Team Goeleven Kawasaki), Robin Mulhauser (MTM-MVR Racing Yamaha) and Alessandro Nocco (San Carlo Team Italia Kawasaki).